Tom MacDonald, Canadian American

Four years ago, Canadian Tom MacDonald released a music video titled “Fake Woke”. I would have never seen the video if not for this article in the Gateway Pundit. The song shot to the top slot on the US iTunes Rap chart, and #2 for all genres. The lyrics quoted in the article had so many gems that I went over to YouTube to listen to it. For instance:

I think it’s crazy I’m the one who they labeled as controversial
And Cardi B is the role model for twelve year old girls

Cancel culture runs the world now, the planet went crazy
Label everything we say as homophobic or racist

They never freed the slaves
They realized that they don’t need to change
They gave us tiny screens, we think we free ’cause we can’t see the cage

Censorship’s an issue ’cause they choose what they erase
There’s a difference between hate speech and speech that you hate

I just wanna spend Thanksgiving Day with food and my family
Without being accused of celebrating native casualties

The honesty and bravery of the song were compelling. I had never heard anything like it. Fake Woke is the polar opposite of the 1970’s Morris Albert hit “Feelings.” MacDonald is brash, angry, and righteous. The first two qualities aren’t difficult to find in modern music, the last is very rare. MacDonald has talked about this on occasion and seems to think the reason is that most musicians are beholden to their publishers. MacDonald publishes his music himself, so he can sing what he wants.

If anything is proof that substance is more important than form, it is Tom MacDonald. He is nothing like the polished products from any established music publisher. He is covered with tattoos, even on his face (and eyelids), dresses in a style that would never be found in any fashion magazine, and he talks trash about anyone he feels like talking trash about: fellow rappers, the music industry, politicians, and especially liberals.

When I first saw him in Fake Woke, his appearance put me off. When I was a kid, my mother wouldn’t let me or my sister see movies made after 1955, or listen to music before that cutoff date. That is, except for Mancini and the whistler Robert Whittaker. Everything else, according to her, was “bad.”

I didn’t hear “modern” music until I left home, but by then had acquired a taste for classical music and opera. My favorite composers were Telemann, Vivaldi, Scarlatti, and Bach. Beethoven was too aggressive for my tastes, too “Elvis.” The same is true of Tchaikovsky and many others, though Rachmaninov was just lyrical enough that I enjoyed all three of his piano concertos. I hated rap.

For the most part, I didn’t like any pop music. When I heard it, it was usually an accident. The sound track of a movie, or a car passing by in the street playing loud. I rarely listened to it on purpose. It didn’t help that I have a hearing peculiarity that makes me more sensitive to high-pitched sounds, and much less sensitive to low notes. This makes it easier to appreciate Baroque classical music (harpsichords and flutes) and harder to appreciate the deep notes found throughout pop music. To me, deep thrumming beats are almost inaudible, but I can feel the vibrations, which are unpleasant.

I was so out of touch with modern music, that I wasn’t sure what Michael Jackson sounded like until I was 50. I heard the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven” for the first time at about 49. I had never heard anything by The Rolling Stones. Almost any musician you could name, I either wouldn’t recognize or couldn’t place the name with the music. I thought “Pink Floyd” was a man with the nickname “Pink” and his real name was Floyd. I was amazed by the song “Foreigner” used in the soundtrack of the third Thor movie’s trailer. Until told later, it didn’t occur to me it was a hit from the 1970’s. I thought it had been made for the trailer and happened to be good.

Then, I heard about Tom MacDonald. Despite his appearance, his choice of genre, and the near total lack of any of the qualities I normally associate with good music, I really like MacDonald’s work. First, because it is honest, but braided into that honesty is bravery. It is easy to be honest about uncontroversial subjects. The subjects MacDonald sings about; woke culture, propaganda, climate change, America, and Donald Trump, are all controversial and carry real risk. For the past four years, thousands of people in America and Canada have been arrested and in some cases imprisoned for expressing views on these topics.

There is a line from MacDonald’s music video “People so Stupid” that surprised me when I first heard it. I immediately rewound the track to hear it again, to be sure I heard what I thought I had. MacDonald sang, “Bacteria is life on mars but a heartbeat isn’t life on earth?”

Who would expect a rapper to expose the lie of abortion as healthcare?

More recently, MacDonald sang about America. For a Canadian, this is a very American song. Writing, singing, and publishing this song is better than any citizenship test ever designed. With it (and others like it), he became a true American. Here is his take on the attempted assassination of President Trump.

MacDonald can be hard to look at initially, but the music won me over. His other songs reveal that his appearance is largely the result of scars he bears of a different lifestyle, since changed for the better. If anything, this makes the tattoos almost beautiful because they show how far he has come by embracing his better self. His song, Angels, talks about this and shows he can be lyrical when needed.

MacDonald’s latest features Rosanne Barr in a hilarious cameo, as they both remind liberals that “Daddy’s Home.”

All of his music videos are made by his partner in life and music, the talented Nova Rockefeller.